21st CENTURY TRENDS

SUMMARY
The five communication trends of the 21st century are as follows: -
Diversity
Means people are different based on their gender ethnicity education. Organizations are today using diversity as a major tool or strategy to retain employees. Diversity as a strategy keeps changing and organizations which have it mainly consist of large work groups.
Globalization
It is the process where companies from various parts id the world set base at other places to produce and sell their products. It is basically started with the fall in the trade barriers and liberalization polices of the countries.
Flexibility
It is the process of adapting to various circumstances both difficult and easy. How an organization is able to handle change is the major factor under consideration here. Being able to change and adapt easily helps organization increase efficiency and effectiveness,
Networking
Organization need to be connected with its various internal and external
Constituencies in order to be successful. It needs to be able to connect and relate to its employees and various departments in the internal level and at the external level it needs to relate to its suppliers distributors stake holders consumers.
Flat
A flat organization is one where in the levels hierarchy between the front level employees and the top management is very few. The organization finds it easy to retain employees as they feel committed towards the organization and there by the overall productivity of the organization will increase.

INDUSTRIAL EXAMPLES
Most private sector companies these days follow all the above mentioned trends as it helps them in their overall growth. In today’s global business environment it is very important for companies to have all the factors to be successful.

REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_century
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=722

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
The experience I can relate to is the discussion held in class about the various trends their applicability to the organizations their advantages and disadvantages. till date I knew about all of them but to know about them working in tandem was a very knowledgeable experience.

CRISIS COMMUNICATION

SUMMARY
It is said that the wheels of life are always in motion you are sometimes at the top and at times at the bottom. This is the same case with the organizations as well. It is how well we the organization can handle the crisis is the important factor. Crisis arises either due to mad or naturally. It is communication that will make or break the organization during the crisis. As it is the responsibility of the communication department to part valuable information and collect information during a crisis scenario.
The steps involved during crisis communication are: -
v To gain control over the situation
v Get as much information as possible
v Set up a crisis management team
v Communicating fast about the crisis
v Find out what the media wants to know about the crisis
v Communicating directly towards the constituents
v Avoid future crisis

INDUSTRIAL EXAMPLE
Today with recession in the US the IT companies in India are facing a huge crisis with respect to depreciation in the dollar. This has affected companies negatively and they had to face a lot of flake from the general public who had information from the media that the companies were giving pink slip to it employees in order to cut costs.

REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_management

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
This goes back to the days when I was working with HSBC BPO and they had to face a crisis because an employee of the company had fraudulently transferred money from the accounts of customers. The other employees had to answer questions from the customers and the company refused to give out relevant information about the crisis and it proved to be very difficult to handle.

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS

SUMMARY
As time has evolved businesses have progressed to various levels. We now see huge businesses making multi billion profits in the world over. Business means profits & losses, if it is a profit for one it is a loss for another.
The life cycle of products today are very short they move introduction to decline in a matter of a few months this is basically due to the fast change in technology and also due to a rapid in customer needs and tastes. Businesses today compete in global environment with global firms the key to such a rapid growth is not only capital but also knowledge. Employees today are seen as an asset to the business they are also one of the main constituents of the business. Human resources have become one of the most important factors of any organization. People switch companies very frequently these days and to retain them is one of the biggest challenges of today’s business environment.
People of the present generation also look for various sources of information and the media has been the biggest source of information in recent times social responsibility is another important factor to be looked into by business and they need to understand that giving back to the environment and public is essential fort he success of any organization.
Therefore it can be said that for success change and modification is a must and organizations must realise that change is the only constant in anything.

INDUSTRIAL EXAMPLES
Outsourcing has become a common phenomenon in today’s businesses. This is mainly because companies today realise that they cannot meet all their requirements only being in one place they therefore have changed themselves in order to be competitive and to survive

REFERENCES
http://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BDYGdfiAGtoC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=CHANGING+ENVIRONMENT+OF+BUSINESS&ots=vuO57r3MKb&sig=3t942RvK8hvWG42hJ_AzQ8OgZXo
http://maltekluck.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/the-changing-environment-for-business/
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I can relate this experience to my childhood days where when one wanted money one had to go to the bank stand in the queue for about 15 minutes give in a challan and draw money from their account. Today the business of banking has changed all we have to do is have an ATM card go to the ATM machine and withdraw money without any loss of time. This change is mainly due to technology customer requirements.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION SUMMARY
Success is achieved through meticulous planning and success in communication also needs planning and organizing. It involves 3 major processes they are the speaker, the subject and the listener. In the case of corporate communication the 3 main aspects are the organization the constituencies and the subject to be communicated.
The organization needs to approach communication in a systematic manner. It needs to ensure that the message matches the constituent and is sent through an appropriate channel.
The resources the organization will need are as follows: -
MONEY: - the expenses involved in the using of the various channels/modes of communication.
HUMAN RESOURCE: - the organization will need to train personnel to communicate effectively.
TIME: - the time the message is conveyed.
The constituents to whom the matter is being communicated to is a very important factor. If the reputation of the organization is strong communicating is easy. What the constituents want is a factor the organization needs to keep in mind before they say anything. The channel of communication needs to be selected carefully. Last but not the least the feed back form the constituents needs to be evaluated and changes if any need to be done.
We can therefore conclude that communication links all the departments of the organization with one another and with the outside world.

INDUSTRIAL EXAMPLES
The advertisement from Aditya Birla which is showcased on TV is a very good example of corporate communication with the public, the advertisement relates to the organization to the five different elements of the universe and also to different parts of the world which tells the public that the organization is truly global.

REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Communication
http://www.chass.ncsu.edu/ccstm/scmh/model.html

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I can relate communication to a guest lecture class that we had in out MBA programme the person who had come for the lecture was showing us slides and explaining the nuances of marketing but when it came to explaining a particular slide on a lubricating gel for females the person was feeling very awkward and did not explain further this I feel is an example of bad communication strategy as the person was not comfortable about the concept.